Tag Archives: Abraham

You Da Man

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I had an acquaintance once who had a particularly annoying sense of humor. She would say things like, “Wow, you wear that shirt a lot; you must really like it. Just kidding.” Or maybe “Did you put your make-up on in the dark this morning? Just kidding.” Somehow, to her, adding just kidding to the end of her comment made it less hurtful. It didn’t.

I struggle with a lot of the Bible. Not struggle as in disbelieving the word of God. Struggle as in understanding why God did some of the things that the Bible says he did. The Old Testament, in particular, has many instances of actions taken by God in which I say to myself, “Really? That seems mean.”

Right up there on the top of the lot is the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his beloved only son, Isaac. The part of the story that I have always struggled with was why God felt the need to make Abraham prove his love. Doesn’t God know everything? Didn’t he already know how much Abraham loved him? Asking Abraham to do such a horrific thing and then stopping him at the last second by saying – basically – “Ha ha, just kidding. But you did good, boy!” seems insecure and mean-spirited.

But the truth of the matter is that there are a lot of things that I don’t understand about God and his world. For example, what was the point of the transfiguration? What was Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah about as they appeared at his side as they were – according to Mark’s gospel – “conversing with him”? I even go so far as to wonder just how Peter, James, and John even KNEW it was Moses and Elijah. Were they wearing nametags? Did Jesus greet them? “Hey there, Mosey. Thanks for stopping by.”

Seriously, these are the things I wonder as I listen to God’s Word being read at Mass. I’m pretty sure God’s going to have a good talk with me when and if I make it to the Pearly Gates.

As I pondered the readings later on after Mass, however, here are a couple of thoughts that occurred to me regarding God’s request that Abraham sacrifice the son he loved so much. (And I absolutely didn’t go out and get my Ph.D. in theology last night, so these are just the random thoughts of a struggling Christian.)

Abraham is a pretty important guy in Jewish history, and therefore in Christian history as well. He was the father of the Jews. According to Genesis: I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing.

By the way, here are some of my mom and dad’s descendants, and therefore Abraham’s…..

Because Abraham is such an important person, he needed to be totally in love with God and incredibly loyal and strong. While it’s true that God knew that Abraham was loyal and would obey his command, perhaps he needed Abraham himself to recognize just how loyal he was to his Lord. Abraham needed to truly believe that he was God’s chosen leader of men and that he fully deserved this position, as demonstrated by his obedience. No doubts.

It further  occurred to me that according to Genesis, once Abraham and Isaac reached Moriah, he told his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Once they built the altar, Isaac asked his father where the lamb was that they were going to offer. Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

In the past, I have always assumed that Abraham said these things so as to keep everyone calm and to prevent Isaac from freaking out. But it dawned on me as I pondered this reading that perhaps Abraham told his servants that they would be right back, and told Isaac that God would provide the sacrifice, because every part of his being knew that God would never make him sacrifice his beloved son. No way, no how.  Perhaps he didn’t know the point of the exercise, but he knew his God. He wasn’t lying when he said they would be right back; he was fully telling the truth.

Now that I’ve address that concern, I will get to work on the Transfiguration. Hmmmm…….

Abraham

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Dad died in November of 2010. All of his grandkids and some of his great grandkids attended his funeral. It so happened that four of his grandkids had babies not too long before he died, bringing the total number of great grands at that time to 10. I remember four mommies standing in the back of the church bouncing Asher, Austin, Mylee, and Jenna, to keep them from crying. I could imagine my mother in heaven smiling.

We were happy as we all learned of the upcoming births earlier that year. But what I really recall about that joyous news was that Jen told our father, “Dad, you’re like Abraham. You have descendants like the stars in heaven.”

She, of course, was referring to the Book of Genesis when God told Abram, “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so shall your descendants be.”

Now there are a total of 14 great grandkids, ranging in age from 1 to almost 11. So between those 14 great grands and his four kids and nine grandkids, he really was like Abraham. And we are all like the stars in his heaven.

I’ve mentioned before that it makes me sad to think that my mother didn’t get a chance to meet any of her great grands. She would have loved them all. Dad certainly did, and enjoyed being around them until he was too sick to enjoy very much. I have a vivid memory, however, of bringing my granddaughter Kaiya to visit him when she was just a baby. As an infant, Kaiya didn’t much like being with people she didn’t know well. But that day she sat on Dad’s lap and he spoke quietly to her saying words that I couldn’t hear, and she didn’t make a peep. She just stared intently into his face. It was like she understood every word he was saying. That’s a great memory.

Yesterday afternoon, Jen and Bill and I hosted a gathering of family in honor of Jen’s visit. I’m happy to say that just like Field of Dreams, when it comes to family gatherings, if we build it they will come. With a few exceptions, the family poured into our little house in Mesa and gathered! Food, laughter, Coronas and bloody marys, NASCAR, carne asada, guacamole, Maggie’s green chile, Christopher’s smoked pork butt – we had it all.

And as she often does, Jen had a great idea. Let’s commemorate the great grands in a visible way, she said.

So the cousins who were present all used their individual artistic ability to design their own tile. The ones who weren’t able to be there will get their chance as well. When all are completed, we will bake them to make the design permanent, and display them in some manner.

We managed to get the kids to sit still long enough to take this photo. Painfully shy Jenna is trying to hide in the back row, and her sister Lexi, newly out of the hospital where she spent almost a week because of an infection that wouldn’t budge, is crying heartily, none too happy to be away from her mommy for too long.

But you know, the photo shows Mom and Dad were, indeed, like Abraham, and their descendants are like the stars in heaven.

great nieces nephews 2.2016

Left to right: Noah, Jenna, Lexi, Austin, Kelsie, Grace, Faith, Asher, Lilly. Not present are Mackenzie, Carter, Kaiya, Mylee, and Cole.

This post linked to the GRAND Social 

Testing: One, Two, Three

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abraham-tooking-isaac-to-mount-moriah-illustration-from-a-catechism-l-histoire-sainteFrom the time I was a little girl studying what was called Bible History at my Catholic elementary school, I always heartily disliked one story in the Bible. (It used to be two stories because it took me quite some time to get comfortable with the story of the Prodigal Son, but over the years, I’ve come to understand the meaning of that parable.)

The story that I continually struggle with, however, is the story in the Book of Genesis about God testing Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. No matter how often I read that story, I can’t get comfortable with the idea of God feeling the need to test Abraham’s loyalty. It always sounded mean spirited and insecure, not at all like God.

The story of Abraham and Isaac was the Old Testament reading at Mass yesterday, much to my dismay. So I really tried to be open to the meaning of the story.

It is clear that Abraham fully trusted God in a way that isn’t easy to do. If God asked Abraham to do this oh-so-difficult thing, there must be a reason, or so Abraham firmly believed. And we all know that Abraham’s trust in God was justly rewarded and that the story has a happy ending (well, unless you’re the ram that took Isaac’s place!).

Trusting God with all your heart and soul isn’t easy. And Abraham wasn’t the only one who God tested. We know the story of Job and all of the obstacles he faced throughout his life. And for 40 years, the Israelites faced test after test as they wandered through the desert. Like the Israelites, we are faced with questions every day. Why did he get the promotion instead of me? Why can’t I have as much money as my neighbor? Even more difficult, why did my child become sick? The oft-heard-of why do bad things happen to good people?

Not all of those questions are answered as slickly and peacefully as in Abraham’s situation. Still, as our homilist Fr. Doug asked the congregation, how do you become courageous if you aren’t faced with situations in which you need courage? God tests us every day so that He can help us to become saints.

I hope I can always be as confident in God’s love as Abraham. And if anyone can help me understand the story of Abraham better, help me out!

On an unrelated note, I recently noticed that my Denver church, which has always been called Church of the Risen Christ, is now called Risen Christ Catholic Parish. This change peaked my curiosity, so I started googling Catholic churches with which I am familiar. Sure enough, every single one that I googled (which admittedly wasn’t that many) is calling itself (Fill in the Blank) Catholic Parish or Catholic Community. For example, the church we attend in Mesa is All Saints Catholic Parish. The church we attended before Bill and I married is now St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Parish.

The tweaked names must mean something. Here’s what I’m guessing: Catholic churches have never been big on “community building.” The focus has always been on worship and the Eucharist. I’m guessing that there is a concerted effort to focus a bit more on being a faith community, emphasis on community. If so, I think that is a positive move. Still and all, I can’t help but cringe a bit every Sunday when I’m asked to greet my neighbor and introduce myself.

You can take the Catholic out of the cradle, but you can’t make her drink (or some such mixed metaphor).